Daily Devotional – 5/18/12 “And you’re judging because …”

Let me guess, please just one guess! You’re perfect! Is that it? Well, that’s the only reason why I can see you judging others. Oh, that’s right – no one is perfect but God, his son Jesus and the Holy Spirit, so unless you’ve taken up one of these positions, get your mouth off of folks. You can’t honestly judge me because I made a mistake when you make them too. How can you possibly say what someone else is doing is right or wrong, when it doesn’t even affect you? You have no control over your co-worker’s choice in men, so stop criticizing her. You can’t stop your son from the choice he makes in women, so stop with all the negative comments. Don’t you know when you judge folk, God judges you? Yea, but the good thing about it is, you’re judged the same way you dish it out. Well, that’s what the bible says in Matthew 7:2, “For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.” I know you can say what you want with the freedom of speech but the bible says in 1 Corinthians 8:9, “Be careful, however, that the exercise of your freedom does not become a stumbling block to the weak.” See, when you judge folk you are, in a sense, placing stumbling blocks in their way and when you do this you bring condemnation upon yourself because you’re the reason your brother fell which is why 1 Corinthians 8:12 says, “But when you sin so against the brethren, and wound their weak conscience, you sin against Christ.”

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not perfect by any stretch of anyone’s imagination because I’m human. If you cut me, I bleed red blood, if I hit my toe, I might just cuss, if I get hurt, I have feelings and if something happens, I might cry. Just because God has bestowed in me a gift of delivering his word in an unconventional way, it doesn’t mean I have the right to judge you. See, although I am not a preacher standing in a pulpit on Sunday, I still accepted this calling on my life to be a teacher of God’s word and when I did I accepted the fact that I would be judged more harshly than someone who doesn’t. James 3:1 says, “Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness.” Don’t get me wrong, I still have my moments but that’s because I am a work in progress. Change isn’t an instantaneous thing, it takes time and work and through this change I’ve learned to get my mouth off of other folk’s lives. I don’t normally do the gossip thing because anyone who knows me knows that’s not me. If you call me for advice, I tell you the truth and not what you want to hear because Proverbs 12:17 tells me that “Whoever speaks the truth gives honest evidence, but a false witness utters deceit.” Stop telling folk they look good when you know they don’t. Don’t tell your best friend you’re happy for her when on the inside it’s far from the truth. Don’t go along with what the group is doing when you know it’s not the right thing because when 1 gets caught, you all get the same charge. If you are a friend or family member, you have the right to tell folks the truth and if they accept it with their mind and heart open, they’ll understand.

Plus, you can’t judge folk by what you see or their choices because you don’t know their reasons. This is why John 7:24 says, “Do not judge by appearances, but judge with right judgment.” See, just because you look at a situation through your eyes doesn’t make it worthy of your judging especially when you aren’t living right. Yea, you are looking through your eyes but when you look through the world’s perception, nothing is what it seems. You look at a woman who wears long skirts all the time and judge her but she’s covering scars from the many surgeries she’s had. You judge a woman for staying in a marriage with a man who used to cheat but what you don’t see is, this was the same man who held her during the night when she was crying from the side effects of chemo, who went to all her doctor’s appointments, cleaned up when she couldn’t keep food down and carried her when she couldn’t walk. You judge a man for accepting a woman back who walked out on him but did you know she was the only one to have his back when he lost his job and fell on hard times? You say, you don’t know how folks stay married for 50+ years but you didn’t see the hell they had to go through to hold on to the promise they made when they took their vows. Yea, you may see the choice but you don’t know the reason, so stop judging. You judge a woman for the tattoo across her chest but she got it to cover the scar from open heart surgery. You judge the young man standing on the corner because he should be in school but he graduated early so that he could work and help his mom who had her legs amputated from diabetes. You judge the young lady because she sometime comes to church in dirty clothes but she is doing the best she can, living with an alcoholic dad. You judge the lady at church who is always shouting when she was in a wheelchair for 6 months last year after a bad car accident but her legs work now and she has a reason to dance. If you took less time to judge and more time with joy, your praise would be different.

Stop judging folk! Stop putting your mouth on people’s lives because you don’t know what they have to live with. God has a purpose for you so don’t spend your time judging, gossiping, hurting others by your words and criticizing all the time. No one is promised the next minute, so enjoy the one you currently have. If you don’t think you have a reason to be thankful, stop and think about all the things you didn’t thank God for yesterday and if you still have those things today; you got something to be thankful for. If you don’t think that God loves you and you complain because he hasn’t answered your prayers yet, think about the families whose child’s body is riddled with cancer! If you can’t find a reason to praise God today, raise your hand to your mouth and blow and if you have breath, you’re living and that’s enough. Just because you’re not living how you think you should be doesn’t make you any less alive because someone is wishing for the blessing you’re taking for granted. You could be sleeping under an overpass or begging for money on the street but you’re not because you’re reading this. You have a reason for still being here, so find it and stop with all the foolishness that’s taking over your life. If you’re grown, your vocabulary should contain more than curse words and slang. If you respect yourself, your Facebook page should contain more than booty shots of you. If you’re grown with kids, you should be a role model for them and stop playing a role. If someone has hurt you or done you wrong, let God handle it because you’re fighting a battle you can’t win. Choose to be happy because it’s a mindset. Choose to smile because it doesn’t cost a thing. Chose to be you and not who folks want you to be because that’s all that matters! Judging others should only take place in a contest and not in everyday life! Judging comes from jealousy which jeopardizes the job that Jesus left for you to do and when this happens, your journey to joy is made rough and your living unjustified!